While talking age, Hylandwoodcraft, you was 10 when I first started working timber. I'm a little behind Jay in age.

One of those Festool thingys would be cool in a one inch version. When will the mortising industry put out a tool like that? Free tenons galore!

My 500,000 dollar enterprise is a decent price, from scratch to going. You might even throw in a work truck, one of those four door cabs with a fancy rack, kind.

I have had two Bosch 6" sanders, they are offal, so dusty. Most frames are finished with nothing, no sanding, oiling, just the wood. It's one of those time savers. I also dropped anchor sealing the joints. We have hand planed surfaces, but my favorite finish is nothing. Although I have never tried the burned and wire brushed venue.

The taking a toll, that is why I try to find short cuts in the work. I don't pound a chisel to waste wood off a tenon, all axe, I have been known to stick a piece back on the mill and saw the tenon, the big long through kind. I do still pound out the corners with a corner chisel, I know some punch the ends in one go with a full chisel, I had one get stuck once. Getting at the right height is critical, sometimes I stand on a block. I also tried to adapt a few different ideas in easing the corners, from a stand up version I pushed with my foot to an air driven corner chisel, but my air compressor and gun is too small. Most mortice work is done with a slick and well placed mortice locations. Finding the right bits for your boring machine is also critical, along with the right gear ratio. When hand boring I tend to go more 1-1/2", instead of 2". I still hold the idea of a foot pedaled boring machine like a bicycle.

I also have to admit to sawing bulk braces with a skill saw, sometimes right to the line with only chamfers chiseled on. On a small job with 4 braces I will easily cut with hand saw and split off the waste.

The ability to switch from hand tools to power tool is an advantage if you find yourself working in remote locations.

Some joints may be quicker with hand tools,some, but to keep the pace day in and day out, could be tiring. Depending on how the shop is laid out, Dave mentioned this, perform one task at a time, layout, bore, clean out and bore peg hole, it breaks up the repetivness. PLS helps with this in some ways. I've often wondered instead of powering up the shop keep it hand tool only and just hire on more people to cover the rate. With low overhead the money returns to the workers, instead of going to the tool companies.